Tuesday, June 21, 2016

Marshall ISD teachers get new pay scale, raises across board. By Bridget Ortigo June 21, 2016 at 4 a.m.

Marshall News Messenger

Marshall ISD trustees on Monday approved a new teacher pay scale and teacher raises to begin this upcoming school year.

Trustees said a vote on other staff raises will come in July.

The unanimous vote by trustees on Monday is the first time Marshall ISD teachers will have seen a raise in five years, district spokesman David Weaver said.

"The teacher pay scale was frozen for five years, beginning in the 2009-10 school year and was unfrozen during the 2014-15 school year, but even when it was unfrozen, the scale stayed the same," Weaver said. "This is allowing teachers a new pay scale and a pay raise for the first time in at least five years."

Weaver said the new pay scale, which begins with a base teacher salary of $37,000 annually for a first-year teacher and tops out at $52,500 for a 25-year teacher, makes the district more competitive with neighboring districts' wages.

Under the new pay scale, a two-year teacher at the district will make $38,120 this upcoming school year, versus making $36,000 annually the previous year. That's a 6.78 percent pay increase for a two-year teacher.

The maximum percentage increase comes for a 12-year teacher who will receive a 14.1 percent increase, or $5,500 in the 2016-17 school year.

The estimated impact to the budget to cover the new pay scale and raises is about $732,000, but that amount could change.

"We have about 400 teachers at the district and we currently have about 40 open positions, the impact to the budget could vary depending on how many positions we fill and the experience level of the teachers we hire," Weaver said.

It was not known what percentage of an increase the remaining Marshall ISD staff could get pending the trustee vote in July.

"Our first priority was for teachers because teachers have 45 days before the first day of instruction to resign penalty free," the district's Director of Human Resources Britni Searle said. "We had a lot of teachers waiting for this so we wanted to do this now."